Barbara Ehrenreich\'s 2005 Book Bait

¶ … Barbara Ehrenreich's 2005 book Bait and Switch continues to have relevance especially given the economic downturn of the past few weeks. Ehrenreich's methodology is unusual and unconventional: she gathers data from first-hand experience like a field worker would. Specifically, the author pretends to be looking for work and details the struggles and pitfalls of navigating through the territory of job-hunting in corporate America. Her methodology can easily be criticized for being unreliable, subjective and only qualitative. However, with Bait and Switch Ehrenreich provides a foundation for more robust quantitative data analyses into the subject of labor sociology, power, class, and gender. Ehrenreich discovers disturbing truths about the state of corporate America: its culture, its hypocricy, and especially its unrealistic vision of what human resources are. Ultimately, I will use Ehrenreich's Bait and Switch to prove that economic distress is related to distorted social values and norms. Quality of life in the United States suffers as a result.

As someone who feels strongly about the kinks in American corporate culture, I can relate to Ehrenreich's approach. She is unabashedly critical of the status quo. She seems to deliberately seek out instances in which she might fail in her search for a white-collar job. Still, what Ehrenreich describes is what has become an almost universal experience for most Americans. Education is not enough. As Ehrenreich points out, a graduate degree and years of corporate experience are insufficient variables to offer financial security or dependable employment. Job insecurity and strong job dissatisfaction is creating a low quality of life in a society that should demand more. In the conclusion of this report I will offer a few suggestions about how Ehrenreich's work might be applied to public policy.

The subtitle of Ehrenreich's Bait and Switch is "The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream." Ehrenreich's work begins at the beginning of her identity change. She turns herself into Barbara Alexander and acquires a new social security number to boot. Her resume is all phony but based on her real experience as Barbara Ehrenreich, the writer and reporter. In the introduction, Ehrenreich notes that Barbara Alexander was open, ready to interview with any company in any field in any geographic location. Her flexibility should have ensured that she found work relatively fast. She used career coaches and Monster.com alike and found no satisfying work, no real job prospects, and especially no career that allowed for a high quality of life. Instead Ehrenreich, as Alexander, discovered the sordid greed at the heart of American corporate culture: one that devalues its human resources to a deplorable degree.

In Bait and Switch Ehrenreich brings to life several key sociological concepts, especially those related to labor, class, gender, and power. One of the key themes of Bait and Switch, and one of the reasons why the book is aptly titled, is that the American Dream is a tease. The American Dream is an unattainable goal. Like fish bait, the idea of the American Dream lures immigrants to the United States, and motivates young students to pursue careers in areas that hold little personal interest for them. Americans are taught that working hard is enough. The conflict between the stated goals of American culture and the means by which to achieve them is huge. Therefore, Ehrenreich's work comments on class conflict and reveals the deep roots of social unrest and dissatisfaction. Although the author does not explicitly address ethics, her work is laden with examples of how ethics and sociology are linked. The perceived breakdown of moral values in American culture can be easily linked to the infusion of greed into the work ethic, into the American Dream itself.

Bait and Switch also shows that the American Dream is what makes people sell their souls as Barbara Ehrenreich was forced to do to find white-collar work as Barbara Alexander. For example, Ehrenreich tamed her naturally assertive nature into a more tame and likable demeanor: one that corresponded with gender norms as well as with norms for prospective employees. Working with one career coach in Georgia, the author presented a confident, convincing sales pitch. She marketed herself and her work skills admirably for a whole hour before the coach bluntly told her without humor that she seemed angry. If Barbara Alexander were male, he would have been confident and sure of himself, not angry.

Ehrenreich as Alexander also pretended to care about people and companies and industries to get a job. Her work reflects Durkheim's principle of anomie. She pretended to be a team player, a mover and a shaker. The fact that Ehrenreich needed to lie to expose the mistruth of the American Dream perfectly fits the cynical tone of Bait and Switch.

The American Dream baits many if not most Americans on a daily basis. The American Dream is one of the primary motivators in American society and is part of the core values of the culture. Material attainment and ruthless independence are woven into the fabric of the work world. Subsequently, American corporate culture is cutthroat and impersonal. Quality of life is devalued because workers are devalued. The idea that employees should enjoy time with their family, health care, and paid vacations is ludicrous to executives who go to almost any length to cut costs. Cutting jobs is considered par for the course, and Ehrenreich shares some of the sordid euphemisms for downsizing such as right-sizing. The research in Bait and Switch substantiates sociological concepts related to power structures and hierarchies including ascribed power. Ehrenreich's work reflects many concepts first expanded on by Karl Marx: theories of class conflict.

In traditional marketing talk a "bait and switch" tactic advertises one product just to get customers in the door. When the customer shows up to buy the low-priced item, the manager kindly tells them they are all sold out but perhaps they might be interested in a similar model that only costs slightly more. The American Dream of freedom and prosperity is the bait and the switch takes place after the student graduates and enters the real world.